Posts Tagged ‘Networking’

Network Like a Top Headhunter: 2 Lessons

July 10th, 2011 by Susan P. Joyce

In early June, I attended the Fordyce Forum in Las Vegas at the beautiful, relatively smoke-free M Resort - tough duty!

Billed as “a conference for search and placement professionals from the publishers of the Fordyce Letter,” the Fordyce Forum brought together over 120 independent recruiters (a.k.a. “head hunters”) to network and to learn new things.

These independent recruiters are a very interesting universe that most of us glimpse very briefly - if at all - in our careers.  They make their living by finding appropriate job candidates for their clients (employers) who have high level opportunities.  Not an easy way to make a living, but it can pay very well, apparently, if you are successful.

As described previously on Job-Hunt, head hunters, like all recruiters, work for employers, not for job seekers, because the employer pays them.  They are paid a fee either when a job is filled by someone they referred for the job, or, on a continuing basis  (a.k.a., “retained”), they are paid by their client employers to keep a look out for good potential employees.

Head hunters are relentless networkers.

Fordyce offered several unstructured networking opportunities in the 2-day Forum, and they were all very well attended.  These people definitely understand how to leverage networking opportunities, and watching them in action was quite educational.

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New Job-Hunt Articles, New eBook, & Career Spotlight

October 26th, 2010 by Susan P. Joyce

Newest (free!) Book:

If you are still employed but your employer has started “cutting back” or having layoffs, you should read this short ebook.  It is the second edition of this Job-Hunt 15-Minute Guide, written by 2-time layoff “graduate” Susan P. Joyce, Job-Hunt’s editor.

Layoff Self-Defense: 7 Facts You Need to Know + 7 Steps to Take
(this link opens a new window or tab)

More free ebooks for job seekers…

Career Spotlight:

If you love working with computers, staying on the leading (or the “bleeding”) edge of technology, you may want a career as a Computer Systems Manager.  Computer systems managers earn an average of $112,000/year, and the US Department of Labor predicts a 10-year job growth of 16%. Over 70% of computer systems managers hold at least a bachelor’s degree. More about this and other careers in Job-Hunt’s Career Changers’ Guide to Careers.

Quote of the week:

Another gem from a fortune cookie, whether or not you’re in a job search right now -

Don’t be pushed by your problems. Be led by your dreams.

New Articles: Three great new articles this week: (more…)

Welcome Robyn Greenspan of ExecuNet!

September 15th, 2010 by Susan P. Joyce

This week, we are very pleased to welcome Robyn Greenspan who is joining the roster of job search and career professionals who are our Job-Hunt Job Search Experts.  These knowledgeable and helpful people contribute monthly articles to Job-Hunt in their areas of expertise.

Robyn will help job seekers with their job search networking issues as Job-Hunt’s  Job Search Networking Expert.  Editor-in-chief at ExecuNet, the private membership network, founded in 1988, Robyn is well-versed both in job search networking and in helping job seekers succeed at networking.

Robyn’s background includes earning an undergraduate degree in psychology and a dual Master of Science degree in counseling and human resources development.

Author of ExecuNet’s very well-regarded and widely cited research project, the annual Executive Job Market Intelligence Report, Robyn also brings daily insight to executives at the public blog, Executive Insider, which enables readers to make better career, business and leadership decisions.

Robyn’s first article, “Lead with Your Abs,” describes how people can make themselves well-known in their network (without showing off any body parts).

Robyn’s education, background in technology, and her experience at ExecuNet will provide Job-Hunt’s visitors with excellent, grounded-in-reality, tested advice on their job search networking strategies.

For more of Robyn, check out the Executive Insider blog, and follow @RobynGreenspan on Twitter.  You’ll find Robyn provides a unique blend of everything you wanted to know about executive career issues – and more that you didn’t – through her Twitter account.

Meet all of Job-Hunt’s  Job Search Experts.

10 Steps to Job Search Success!

September 3rd, 2010 by Susan P. Joyce

An earlier post about wasting time in a job search described how job seekers waste their time and energy applying for hundreds of jobs, under the delusion that applying for jobs via job boards is how people land job. For over 85% of job seekers, applying via job boards is NOT what works!

Rather than hundreds of fruitless applications, this is what does work:

1.  Choose up to 3 job titles for jobs that you really want.

Why bother applying for jobs you don’t want?  If you landed one, you’d be miserable, most likely, and you probably wouldn’t be a good perfomer, so you’d be job hunting again – way too soon in this economy - and probably with less than stellar recommendations.

Let’s be serious here. Don’t pick “network TV news anchor” or “dermatologist” unless you have the credentials required of a network TV news anchor or dermatologist, respectively, or unless you have a plan to get those credentials before you start your job search.

If you really don’t know what you want (other than a paycheck), buy or borrow a copy of Richard Bolles best-selling book, “What Color Is Your Parachute.” Read the whole book, and do ALL the exercises.  This will be time very well spent!

Focusing on the few job titles for jobs you really want enables you to be more effective in your job search.

2.  Choose up to 20 target employers.

Find employers who seem to be financially stable, relatively secure in their market niche, and in the right location for you:

  • Check local Best Employer lists.
  • Ask family, friends, neighbors, even employees of various local companies, for the names of local employers that are good places to work – good management, fair pay, good benefits, etc. – whatever is important to you.
  • Go through the Yellow Pages of your phone book or search an online Yellow Pages for your location to find potential employers in the right kinds of businesses for you (e.g. food wholesalers, jewelry stores, IT consulting companies, etc. – whatever your target employers might be).
  • Identify more potential employers by searching on job titles, type of business, or the industry/sector you want in one of the job aggregator sites, like Job-Hunt’s sponsors Indeed.com, JustJobs.com, and LinkUp.com.

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New Job-Hunt Articles + Career Spotlight

August 26th, 2010 by Susan P. Joyce

Career Spotlight: If you are interested in working closely with doctors to help heart patients, being a cardiovascular technologist might be a good fit for you.  The average annual salary is $47,000/year, and demand for people skilled in this profession is expected to grow 26% in the next 10-years, with 25% of cardiovascular technologists holding bachelor’s degrees. More about other careers in Job-Hunt’s Career Changers’ Guide.

We added four new articles this week:

Meet all of Job-Hunt’s  Job Search Experts.

Good luck with your job search!

LinkedIn Improvements

November 6th, 2008 by Susan P. Joyce

LinkedIn has undergone some major changes recently, and one of the most useful ones is the addition of the capability to have “discussions” with members of the different LinkedIn Groups you may have joined.

For me, it has turned LinkedIn from an enormous collection of names to a collection of people.  LinkedIn now enables you to interact more directly with people with whom you have something in common (or, presumably, you wouldn’t belong to the same Group), but who are not part of your first level connections.

I’ve joined a number of LinkedIn Groups associated with my past – my college, for example, and groups associated with my profession (“Career Professionals”) and my previous jobs (“digital alumni” for people, like me, who worked for Digital Equipment Corporation in the past).

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